'FED UP' and furious!

While on the hunt to find out as much information as I can about clean eating and unprocessed foods I stumbled upon one of my newest favorite websites... The Gracious Pantry (The Gracious Pantry)...I love that her website (unlike most of the other ones) does not push her lifestyle as a diet, it's not about that to her... it's truly about being healthy and sharing that with the world. In addition to the ridiculous amount of recipes that you'll find, there's a bunch of other really interesting reads. One of which was a post about a movie that just came out called 'Fed Up'- Fed Up - the Official Trailer

Even though I am turning into an old lady (yes yes I did say I'm only 30) and normally struggle to stay awake, Nate and I made it to the 9:30 showing last night. I cannot even begin to tell you how frustrating, infuriating, sad, inspiring and informational I found this movie... it's truly a must see for anyone, but especially those of us on this journey to bring clean unprocessed foods into our life. I won't spoil it or go into any real detail about the movie because I think you should make the effort to check it out for yourself, but I will say I think it helped motivate me and more clearly define what this journey is and is not for me. 

This is NOT I repeat... NOT about some diet I'm on, I am not counting calories, you will never find me listing the nutritional value of something, or what I eat on a day to day basis because that's not what this is about. And some day, when I have truly changed my way of thinking, I will also honestly be able to say that this has absolutely nothing to do with weight loss for me.

This IS however a lifelong journey for me... to not only change the way I eat but also the way I view food and myself... and hopefully it'll also be a journey where I can truly inspire people, either through this blog or another way, to speak out against the food industry and all the harm they are doing to us and the generations to come. I also hope to have a better understanding of the beneficial and not so beneficial properties of various foods that we eat. For example (spoiler alert - I'm going to give away one small part of the movie), in Fed Up they discussed how every calorie is not created equal... now for the most part I already knew this. When I was counting calories I realized that if I ate a 500 calorie lunch at Panera it would not be the same as 500 calories of grilled chicken and veggies... but I don't know that I knew the extent to which my choice, despite eating the same amount of calories, truly affected my ability to lose weight. I feel that it is important to understand how food is utilized and broken down so you can maximize the benefits and nutrients you feed your body. I spent a great deal of time yesterday looking for a book(s) that might provide me with some insight, and honestly it was pretty hard to find!! In my search I've narrowed it down to two options, 100 Best Health Foods and National Geographic Foods for Health: Choose and Use the Very Best for Your Family and Our Planet. The second one doesn't come out until September but I was going to go check out the first one. I'll let you know how I made out. People always say knowledge is power and I could not agree more.

After all of that I think I'm finally ready to clearly define for myself what I consider clean eating and what guidelines I'll live within throughout this journey. As I mentioned in the beginning I know I will never completely be able to live a clean lifestyle... I don't want to put so many restrictions on myself that I can't meet a friend out for dinner without bringing my own personal cooler... that isn't the point of all of this for me. With that said, I will ensure that throughout the week Nate and I have clean unprocessed foods to eat for every meal, except for the rare occasion when we eat out (which is like once or twice a month probably.) When we do end up going out to eat I will make every attempt to eat clean food, and if I can't eat completely clean I'll eat healthy... and if there's nothing healthy on the menu for me to eat... I'll eat whatever looks most delicious!! (Hey, sometimes you just have to go for it!) As far as what I consider clean and unprocessed, I think it's a lot of the usual, fresh fruits and vegetables, unprocessed whole grains, organic local farm raised meat and wild seafood. I know some people go back and forth on whether dairy is processed or not...and I've decided that I will include dairy in my diet and just choose the options that do not have any chemicals or ingredients in them that I can't identify. The Gracious Pantry has a few really good posts on unprocessed oils and  different options to replace white sugar with while cooking/baking.
A beginners guide to Clean Shopping
Clean Oils
Recipe Substitution Info

The other day I went through our house and pulled out every item in our pantry that was processed/had ingredients I didn't recognize. I know I can't do a complete overhaul of our kitchen all at one time... that's expensive! So we've started slowly... we're donating a big box of food...

threw out a few things... and everything else went in mason jars. We are really lucky and have an amazing co-op right near us and that's where we do all of our grocery shopping Honest Weight Food Co-Op. They encourage you to reuse containers where possible, so I wanted to make sure this transition was as easy as it could be. I also just really like the look of the mason jars and chalkboard paint (Thanks Pinterest!)

As you can see we've still got some processed stuff...but I'm working on it!

Well I think that's all I've got for today... I'm headed off to VT with Nate for Memorial Day weekend to enjoy some delicious food and even better beer... fyi you'll probably also learn a lot about good beer if you read this blog, my fiance is a serious beer nerd. This will be a really big challenge for me since normally I over eat on these vacations and beat myself up for it...but I have confidence in myself...that will not happen on this trip.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend... Remember all our amazing military folks out there...until next time!